Salt Blog
March 12, 2019
Last week my AUS 2018 Ninja 400 took a trip in the trailer up to Lake Gairdner, South Australia to the salt flats attending the annual "speed week", alike to that of Bonneville, though in the middle of the Australian outback.
The conditions of the salt weren't ideal with it being a little damp in the mornings making it hard for the bike to pull it's tall gearing due to the extra surface area on the tires, alongside cross and headwinds down the track throughout the event not helping the case.
Timing at the salt is the average speed over a mile, in contrast to a speed trap or GPS which only logs the top speed that is achieved for a split second, of which my 400 pulled 123.170 MPH at an average for a flying mile on flat ground, so a TRUE speed reading.
Timing gear was Tag Heuer, top of the line in the way of this equipment, the average speed is dead accurate so no arguing with the quoted number. (Timing slip pictured)
For those wondering, highest recorded speed noted on the speedometer (as that's what everyone quotes) was 213 KPH (132.35 MPH), although this doesn't mean a whole lot as it's inaccurate and has little meaning in relation to the real average speed without a GPS reading, it's just a number you and I see when we ride that we can all relate to.
The bike was mostly all stock including ride height, body panels, tire and chain as it ran in the production class (500 P-P) and these could not be altered, with the exception of headers, gutted stock muffler, DynoJet PC and air filter.
We ran Unleaded 91 (RON) which ran perfectly and made the most power for all the runs.
In the way of gearing, we ran multiple combinations of which included 15,38 which the bike pulled to red line, 16,38 which pulled to just over 11,000 RPM and 17,38 which was a little too tall and pulled to just over 10,000 in top gear.
We also had a chat with Ronnie from BC Performance at the salt, who happens to work on the WorldSSP 400's with Kawasaki, who was a great help and lent us a 17T front sprocket to run (yes it fits, just) so thank you to them.
Ronnie also stated that the speed that I ran on the 400 was a fair bit greater than that of the WorldSSP 400's, which I'm stoked about.
A big thank you to my sponsor CoffeeSnobs for the ongoing support of the bike's build and salt entry, also to Penrite Oils for supplying our bikes fluids and lastly Dry Lake Racers Australia (DLRA) for hosting and running this extraordinary event.
Aforementioned, the highest true, accurate, average mile speed achieved was 123.170 MPH, only 0.004 MPH off the 500cc Production class record, despite the other bikes in the class being 25% larger in capacity to the 400.
So, feel free to challenge my unwarranted claim of "World's fastest Ninja 400" which I'll say is unassisted as it was on complete flat ground unlike the YouTube videos around, where it's either a 650 or downhill with a tailwind.
I'd also say this is an accurate number for the bikes top speed as its mostly stock, especially aerodynamic wise.
Maybe a 400 with higher HP output than Australia may be able to pull greater numbers than I have. Although for now I'll stake my claim.
Needless to say I'm rather impressed with the performance of our little machines, far exceeding my expectations.
Even if it's not the fastest I had a ripper week away on the salt!